Have You Heard of League of Legends?

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While people with what you might call “real world skills” are getting ready to leave London, people with “unreal world awesomeness” (like the ability to teleport and shoot magic beams for miles) are just warming up for their competitions.

These people are professional League of Legends players.

League of Legends is an online multiplayer battle arena game played by somewhere around thirty million people worldwide. I know it’s super popular, because when I Googled "how many people play," before I could type in "league of legends," the search suggested "how many people play wow," and then "how many people play league of legends." Now that’s big (said in a husky, southern voice).

Why is League of Legends so popular? I've played it for about two months now, and I can give you a couple guesses:

1. The never-been-done format. While spawned from a mod of Warcraft III called Defense of the Ancients (a super-popular game that even resulted in a song by Basshunter), when League of Legends became its own game it gave birth to a new genre. The game blends real-time strategy with gladiator-style fighting.

2. The never-get-bored variety. Right now the League has over a hundred champions, each varied in many ways from the last, and they're releasing new champions all the time.

3. Um, the never-pay-money freeness of the thing. You earn points from each game that you can use to buy new champions. There's no monthly subscription or trial period. If you want to get champions without working for them, or pimp your favorite champion out with a new skin, then you can fill Riot Games' pockets with some real-world rupees, if you know what I mean.